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. . . And How the East Was Won

Updated Nov. 9, 1999 12:01 a.m. ET

By Caspar W. Weinberger, chairman of Forbes magazine. He was Ronald Reagan's secretary of defense.

I first saw the Berlin Wall when, as U.S. secretary of defense, I was meeting with our troops in Germany. All our guard posts and observation towers faced east, toward the invasion routes we expected the Soviets to use. But what was striking was that their towers and posts also faced east&mdash;to guard against escape.